Video conferencing involves the interconnection of two or more parties to communicate via an exchange of video. A wide variety of conferencing applications have developed to allow for video conferences that are easy to establish and manage. Participants can join prescheduled conferences but can also initiate impromptu conferences. Most conferencing applications allow participants to connect with each other using phone numbers, email addresses, and service handles, as well as many other suitable mechanisms.
As the feasibility of video conferencing has increased, so too have the ways and environments in which it can be delivered. For example, conference participants may engage in a video session using traditional desktop or laptop computers, as well as tablets, mobile phones, gaming systems, dedicated conferencing systems, or any other suitable communication device. Different architectures can be employed to deliver video conferencing solutions, including centrally managed and peer to peer architectures.
Many video conferencing solutions display video of each participant within display windows arrayed within the application. The presentation of video within each display window may vary considerably depending upon a number of factors, including the capture resolution employed at the source, the data rate available for transmission of the captured video, and the display resolution available on the presenting device. Other factors include the relative proportion of the display space formed by the display windows that is occupied by the objects corresponding to the participants.